Time to Go Home

Our last day of vacation. This morning we went back to our favorite cafe for breakfast. We went down to Pike's Place Market one last time to pickup fresh fruit for the plane ride. We also enjoyed amazing chowder at Pike's Place Chowder. Even Landon got to try a little sourdough bread drizzled with chowder. We left the hotel with all our baggage in tow. I wish we would have taken a picture of that. We looked ridiculous with all our luggage. Don't ask me how we managed. Landon did pretty well on the flight back. He didn't sleep much but we constantly found ways to try to entertain him. Ironically, this flight had more families with small children on it than I have ever seen. If there was any flight for Landon to lose it, it would have been this flight. However, we kept him entertained and he did a good job. Once we got into LA we drove to Ama and Papa John's to pickup Bergie. Bella was spending the evening with Ama and Papa so we all got to see her too. Look at those cute, chapped rosey checks. It might not be comfortable but it sure looks cute.
Hustle and bustle of Pike's Place Market

Yummy clam chowder

Trying sourdough bread and chowder

Landon dozing off on the flight

We arrived at LAX. Now we are taking the airport shuttle to our car.

Thanks Ama and Papa for watching Bergie Girl while we were on vacation.

Sorry Murphy dog for taking away your friend.

T.G.I.F. Nov 20

Today we rented a car so we could go wine tasting. We opted not to travel with our car seat so we rented one. Let's just say next time we'll probably bring our own car seat. The first winery we visited was Chateau St. Michelle. There we got a free tour of the winery and enjoyed a couple tastings. After, we went across the highway to Columbia Winery. We really enjoyed the wine at Columbia, so much so that Sonje joined the Wine Club. That evening we went to Cheesecake Factory and ordered take out. The wait was just too long with a little baby. I'm actually glad we took it to go because we had fun eating our dinner in our room. We had a nice last evening in our Seattle hotel.

Landon fell asleep in the car on the way to the wineries

On the steps at Columbia Winery

This is how I'd want my wine cellar to look like

Sonje's a proud member of the Wine Club.

Here's a picture of Landon and daddy in the private club room.

Thursday, November 19

Let's just say this wasn't the best day of our vacation...

The only thing we actually "scheduled" for this trip was a city tour of Victoria. The rest of the vacation we did all our own sight seeing. However, we thought since we were only in Victoria for a day, we would do a city tour so we could get around to seeing all the tourist sights. This was something we booked before we ever left LA. We had actually booked the tour for yesterday (Wednesday). It was scheduled for 11:00am, just shortly after deboarding the catamaran. However, the tourism company rescheduled the tour to today. The new time to board was 9am. It was a very early morning as we had to get ourselves ready, get Landon ready, eat breakfast and walk to the bus. However, we ran SUPER late and rather than walk to the bus, we RAN, and fast!!! We got to our pickup spot at 8:55. We couldn't believe we had made it. There was a sightseeing bus there but no driver. We waited and then thought, what if we aren't in the right spot. Sure enough, they had changed the pickup location and didn't tell us. The new location was up the next block. So again, we RAN. We were practically there when the bus driver pulled away from the curb. Screaming, yelling and running down the street of Victoria, we tried to get the driver's attention. We had several Victoria residents helping us, running after the bus, trying to get the driver to stop. He didn't. We were left behind. I immediately burst into tears. One of the nice Victoria residents that was also trying to help flag the bus driver, came over to us. She felt so bad for us. It must have looked hilarious watching a crazy women running in the rain with her husband pushing a stroller with their 7-month old baby behind her. Yes, I forgot to mention it was pooring rain. The women used her cell phone to call the tourism company and left a message for us saying she hoped we would get our money returned to us. I couldn't stop crying. It was a rough morning. We wound up going to a little cafe for breakfast and coffee. I had the best tea latte there. After, we visted The Empress Hotel and then walked (in the rain) several blocks up to the castle. Its quite an incredible story behind the castle. Later we had lunch at the cutest cafe with the best food. The small restaurant and the presentation of the food was out of this world. It obviously was a local favorite. We made our way back to our hotel where we hung out for a bit in the lobby so we could get out of the rain and so Landon could crawl around on the floor a bit (yes, that sounds gross but when you have a baby that has been cooped up in a stroller, you look past it). It was now time to leave Victoria. We walked to the harbor one last time and boarded The Clipper. The trip back was super choppy but that wasn't the worst part. Landon threw an absolute fit. To date, this was the worst he's ever acted. He uncontrollably screamed and screamed. I imagine he didn't feel very well like the rest of us. Fortunately for us, we were able to take motion sickness medicine and eat ginger candies. Unforunately for him, he wasn't able to take anything. Poor guy had a REALLY rough time (no pun intended). It was late when we arrived to Seattle. We walked from the seashore to our hotel. Sonje went and picked up lettuce wraps from PF Chang's and we ate in our hotel room. It had been an exhausting day so it was nice to stay indoors and out of the cold.

oh... but something good that happened today and made big news- Landon pulled himself up on his knees to get to his toys sitting on our red luggage.

Landon trying "real food" for the 1st time. We broke off little pieces of fruit and gave it to him. As you can see, he was a big fan.

Nursing in The Empress.

Touring Craigdarroch Castle

Being silly in the castle pretending to dance in the dance hall.

Enjoying lunch in the Blue Fox Cafe

Having some play time on the floor

Daddy trying his hardest to make Landon happy on the catamaran ride. Nothing seemd to work.

Wednesday the 18th

Leaving the hotel to go board the boat
Parliament Building

The Empress Hotel

Eating lunch- chicken ceasar wraps and fries.

Another early morning. Today we left for Victoria, B.C. We had to be at the dock at 7am, therefore, in order to get ready, eat breakfast at our favorite little cafe across the street from the hotel, walk to the waterfront, we woke up super early. The boat left Seattle around 8. We arrived in Victoria around 10:45 and were the last ones to get through customs. Immediately off the boat you can see the Parliament buildings, The Empress Hotel and all the lovely buildings. We walked to our hotel, Chateau Victoria. It was behind The Empress. We decided we would hop on the 1:00 Express bus to go see The Butchart Gardens. We had just enough time to get a quick bite to eat. At 1:00 we were waiting for the bus but it didn't arrive. Not sure if it arrived early and we missed it or the route had been cancelled since it was considered the off season. Instead we had to take another bus that took the LONG way to the Butchart Gardens and also included a 30 minute wait at a bus transfer location. We met a nice man while waiting for the bus transfer we actually worked at the gardens. When the bus finally arrived at the gate of the gardens it was 2:45pm. The sign read that the gardens close at 3:30. I was so upset. The website said the gardens were open till 5pm. Here we just went all this way, spent all this time to get up there and in 45 minutes the gardens were expected to close with the last bus coming to pick up there at 3:30. The man we met that worked at the gardens said although gates close at 3:30, people can stay an hour after gates close. He also was sooo kind and used his employee badge to get us in free as he felt bad for us. In the rain we walked the gardens quickly. Yes, they were pretty but since it wasn't bloom season, we didn't get to enjoy the gardens in their normal splendid fashion. Amazing that these gardens are family owned and have been impressing visitors for 101 years. Close to 4:30 we trucked up the road to the nearest bus stop outside the gardens, road the bus all the way back and stayed in for the rest of the evening. Sonje had the hotel shuttle driver drive him to nearest grocery store where he bought chicken, potatoes, mac n cheese and brought it back to eat in.

Tuesday, Nov. 17th

Standing in front of the first Air Force One
Pretending I'm exiting Air Force One like the First Lady would

Eating in the Wings Cafe

My little pilot

Of all places I actually ran into a girl I graduated from H.S. with

Sitting in an SR-71 Blackbird

Today I planned for us to go to the Museum of Flight. The funny story behind this is Sonje didn't want to go to this museum. In fact, in his words he said something along the lines of "I've seen enough airplanes being that I went to the Academy and I've been to the Smithsonian Space Museum and it doesn't get better than that". Despite his comments I wanted to go see the original Air Force One. So I put Landon in his airplane onesie and bommer jacket and we headed out.